| Nancy Hayton | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hollyoaks character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Jessica Fox | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2005–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 1553 6 July 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Jo Hallows | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book appearances | Hollyoaks: Playing With Fire (2006) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spin-off appearances | Hollyoaks Later (2008, 2010, 2012, 2020) Hollyoaks: A Little Film About Love (2011) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nancy Osborne (also Hayton and Dean) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Jessica Fox. The character first appeared on 6 July 2005. Since the character's inception she has been involved in many notable storylines such as a love triangle; coping with the death of her sister Becca (Ali Bastian); marrying Jake Dean (Kevin Sacre); drug abuse; domestic violence; being the victim of two attempted rapes by Jake and Finn O'Connor (Keith Rice); marrying Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson); suffering a miscarriage; prematurely giving birth to Darren's son, Oscar Osborne, who is deaf; an addiction to painkillers; a highly-publicised storyline where Sienna Blake (Anna Passey) attempts to steal Darren and her family away from her; getting brain damage after an attack from Sienna; an affair with Rick Spencer (Victor Gardener); and a fling with Rick's son Robbie Roscoe (Charlie Wernham). Her later storylines have seen the character be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; discovering Darren's affair with her friend Mandy Richardson (Sarah Jayne Dunn), leading to the couple's separation; a relationship with Kyle Kelly (Adam Rickitt); miscarrying Kyle's baby after being stabbed; and dealing with Kyle's suicide. In the character's early stages, she was portrayed as a less conventional character compared to the rest of the Hollyoaks teenagers. Fox left the series on 23 March 2023 due to going on maternity leave, and she returned on 15 January 2024.